“EUREKA SCHOOL – This building, opened in 1921, under the leadership of W.H. Jones, was one of the first modern brick schools in Miss. for blacks. Its alumni have served the state and nation with distinction.”

The Eureka School, Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Prior to Eureka School’s opening in September 1921, a red frame school for African-American students had previously stood on the site. In 1919-20 a bond issue for $75,000 was floated to raise funds for Eureka School’s construction.

When Eureka School opened in September 1921 for Grades 1 through 12, it was the second brick school building for African American students in the state of Mississippi.

The cornerstone of the building was laid on behalf of a local Masonic Lodge, Hattiesburg Lodge No. 115, by the Masonic Grand Master of Mississippi, W.W. Phillips.

Eureka School enrolled Grades 1-12 between 1921 and 1949. Enrollment grew dramatically in the 1940’s, from 800 in 1940 to 1,400 in 1947. A neighbourhood high school was opened to in 1949 and Eureka became an elementary school from 1949 to 1987. It then operated as a Community Education Center until the mid-1990’s.

It is currently undergoing renovation and conversion into an African American Heritage and Cultural Museum and interpretive center for the Civil Rights Movement, particularly the activities of Freedom Summer 1964. Here are links to some websites with more information on Eureka School: Eureka School Restoration.

Eureka School is just off Mobile Street, which was once the main business, commercial and cultural street at the center of a thriving African-American neighbourhood in Hattiesburg. The neighbourhood has fallen on harder economic times and many of the buildings that once lined Mobile Street are gone.

Mobile Street, Hattiesburg, Mississippi and the Mississippi Blues Trail marker for Roots of Rock and Roll.

There are many vacant lots along Mobile Street and its intersecting streets.

The Mississippi Jook Band was put together for a single recording session in a hotel (now demolished) on Mobile Street in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 1936. The four sides listed above are the only known recordings made by the Mississippi Jook Band.